The Lindsay Park team started the Flemington carnival with a bang posting their second stakes-winner on Derby Day with Ndola, whose sire Justify produced exciting 2YO colt Haffner to win the Group I Breeders’ Cup Turf Juvenile Colts (1m) at Keeneland on Friday.
Five year-old gelding Ndola is racing in peak form this year and produced his A game to win the Group III VRC GH Mumm Rising Fast Stakes (1200m).
Ndola won a Listed race up the Flemington straight back in July and has been racing consistently since then. He enjoyed being back on the straight track and let down with a big finish for Jye McNeil to charge home and win by a long neck.
Right down to the wire ???? NDOLA gets the better of Sweynesday in a thrilling finish to the G.H.Mumm Rising Fast Stakes over 1200m. #DerbyDay https://t.co/2tOkj7SB4t
— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) October 31, 2026
"We always thought he could maybe get out further but we've stuck to sprinting this prep and it's given us a lot of rewards. He's a fantastic horse and these colours that won today are very special to the Hayes family,” said co-trainer Ben Hayes.
"We've been in partnership with the Gordons and the Devitt's, Peter Devvit, for a long time so to get a big winner like that on Derby Day for them. They do a lot of breeding and it's just so great for them so we're so thrilled and what a result."
Ndola has built a tidy record as a winner at two, three, four and five with his overall tally standing at nine wins and eight placings from 23 starts with prizemoney topping $900,000.
Ndola is a homebred for Peter Devitt and partners as was his mother the Group III winning sprinter Hear the Chant, sired by another Devitt and partners homebred in Nicconi.
Hear the Chant has made a great start to her stud career with her three of her first four foals to race being winners and Ndola is the second stakes-winner joining Herecomesthestar.
Hear the Chant missed in 2024, but was back at Coolmore again last spring to visit Home Affairs and produced a filly by the champion sire in August.
While Justify remains in Kentucky, he has two sons on the Coolmore roster this spring with 2024 European Horse of the Year City of Troy (USA) priced at $49,500, while brilliant Group winning juvenile Storm Boy stands for $16,500.
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